Working in Health and Social Care: A Good Choice?

What sort of work is it?
Working in health and social care is all about making a difference to people’s lives, whether you are working with children and families to improve life chances or with vulnerable adults who find life difficult because of disability, substance abuse, mental heath problems or frailty associated with aging.

What kind of jobs are there?
There are many different kinds of job some requiring degree level qualifications for example social workers and others such as care workers and support workers with NVQ qualifications often gained “on the job”. There is also a need for talented people to work in finance, administration,, IT, contracting and commissioning who play a vital role in underpinning services. Wherever you choose to work you will be making a real contribution to sustaining communities and improving peoples lives.

Who will I work for?
The Government’s agenda through initiatives like “ Every Child Matters” affecting services for children and families and  “Our Health, Our Care, Our Say” for adult services means that health and social care increasingly delivered through partnerships involving Local Authorities, Primary Care Trusts (NHS), independent and voluntary sector providers and service users and carers. This is good news for users of services as the emphasis is on prevention and supporting independence and choice. For example, more older people will be enabled to live at home rather than going into residential care, supporting families through the creation of Children’s Centres will help to prevent family breakdown and through the Direct Payments initiative, more people with disabilities will be in control of their own care and able to live more independently.
 

What will my future career look like?
The direction of change towards building services around individuals and delivering those services within the community is also good news for anyone starting out on a career in health and social care. New ways of integrated working mean an expansion in the variety of roles being created as innovative ways of delivering services are developed. This means that more than ever before you will have the opportunity to experience areas that you find of particular interest to you and adapt your work to accommodate life changes whilst continuing to build on the skills you have gained.

A good choice?
Definitely! You will be guaranteed a future in which you will never be bored, you will have endless opportunities to develop and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have really made a difference.